The Institute for Research and Democratic Development (IREDD), the Research and Democratic Governance and Civil Society Organization has officially launched the 7th edition of the Open Budget Survey (OBS) report of 2021.
The report which highlights Liberia’s standing among countries of South Sahara Africa is in collaboration with the International Budget Partnership.
Releasing the report on Friday, IREDD’s Executive Director, Matthias Yeanay said the OBS is a global network of researchers from non-governmental and Civil Society Organizations across 120 nations worldwide.
He said based on OBS comparative and fact-based assessment criteria, Liberia is lacking behind on the Open Budget Index Scale of 0-100 as follow: “Transparency, Liberia scored 38 out of 100, Public Participation, Liberia scored 6 out of 100 and oversight, Liberia scored 48 out of 100 respectively.”
“As Liberia scores from the three measureable areas of assessment fall below the global acceptable average, there is need for constant and sustained advocacy steps to mandate the country’s stand on the OBS index score,” IREDD’s Executive Director said.
The report was officially launched in the presence of representatives from the Ministry of Finance Development Planning, Law makers, Civil Society Organizations and among others.
The annual launch of the OBS report is geared toward engendering engagement with the governments that are below the global average to effect concrete steps aimed at improving their respective countries standing.
The comparative measures, countries at minimum certified the acceptable global average can easily respond to challenges of basic public services and promote growth and development.
The OBS initiative came into being in 2008 and is currently rated the world’s only reliable independent and comparative organization that regularly assesses the level of transparency, oversight and public participation in national budget processes.
OBS uses comparative and fact-based internationally accepted research criteria and instruments to assess public access to central government’s budget information across countries; the process provides opportunities for the public to participate in budget processes.
Public budget processes are an important space for governments to engage meaningfully with the publics around decisions that can help communities bounce back better. Accountable public spending restores public trust that government can deliver.
“Our latest results affirm that investing in open budgets is a winning proposition. Since 2008, Transparency scores have increased more than 20 percent. Nevertheless, we are still far from the levels of information the public needs to provide meaningful debate on public spending and broader accountability systems remain weak, putting at risk vital public resources,” IREDD’s Executive Director said.
Public engagement in budget decision-making is the weakest link in accountability systems. Budgets remain a primary elite conversation with few avenues for ordinary people to engage and have a say.
Only four countries (South Korea, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Georgia) offer moderate opportunities for public participation. While some countries engage with the public when formulating or approving budget, very few do so during implementation and oversight phases. Eight countries worldwide have a formal channel to engage underserved communities.
In respond to the report, the government through the Ministry of Finance Development Planning suggested that before deadline of submission, it is reasonably prudent that CSO to engage the Ministry of Finance and Legislature and other requisite people.
Mr. Johnson S.N Williams, Director for Budget Policy – Coordinator, welcomed and accepted OBS report on behalf of the government but expresses reservation with IREDD particularly in Transparency score awarded to Liberia.
He requested to have known the anonymous persons contacted by the CSO in the Ministry of Finance but he asserted that considering the decision to withhold the names of their contact persons, said the contact persons in government perhaps are clueless to the issues or sometimes selected to be biased.
The Ministry of Finance proxy openly differed with transparency scored- and said, the actual score of Liberia is 45 and not 38 as reported But IREDD justified.
For his part, Nimba County District 8 representative, Larry Younquoi welcome the report and appreciated IREDD for the report on government suggested that CSO should always invite lawmakers who are on budget committees like, Ways, Means and Finance , Speaker or Pro-Temp and other requisite officials to speak to these kind of issues.
The Alternative National Congress official said the Executive of President George Weah is so strong that it dwarfs the legislature’s oversight.
